Warren Buffett Agrees To Take Miami’s WPLG In Return for Graham Holdings Stock

The terms of the deal are still squishy, but include the 1.6M Class B shares that Warren Buffett‘s Berkshire Hathaway owns in Graham Holdings — the new name for the company that owned The Washington Post before it sold the paper to Amazon’s Jeff Bezos last year. Buffett’s stake accounted for about 23% of the voting shares in Graham as of the last proxy, out early last year. He will receive the ABC affiliate plus an unspecified amount of cash and shares that Graham owns in Berkshire Hathaway. Buffett was a long-time backer of the Post. “While this transaction will greatly reduce our position in Graham Holdings, our admiration for the company and its management is undiminished,” he says. Graham’s CEO Donald Graham assured WPLG employees that they are moving to “one of the greatest companies in America.” Graham shares are up 1.8% in early trading. The market values the company, which also owns Kaplan Test Preparation, at $5.3B.

1 Comment

Eric • on Mar 13, 2014 1:23 am

Last year came the news of Amazon.com Founder/CEO Jeff Bezos acquiring The Washington Post and other Post-owned newspapers… Post-Newsweek Stations group being renamed as Graham Television Holdings. Today’s news of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway acquiring Miami ABC station WPLG-TV comes as somewhat of a surprise… as well as Graham holding on to Detroit and Houston NBC stations (WDIV and KPRC, respectively), San Antonio ABC station (KSAT), Jacksonville Independent station (WJXT), and Orlando CBS station (WKMG) for now.

I could picture Buffett eyeing the rest of the Graham Television Holdings group. Another idea… If Landmark Communications is still looking to exit the TV station ownership business, I could also picture Buffett eyeing Las Vegas CBS station (KLAS) to add to Berkshire Hathaway portfolio.